I really don’t get why so many people here picked Rogue One in the top 3

I thought it was a better done movie than any of the prequals or sequals, and it does a very good job portraying the heroic tragedy genre by developing characters we actually care about who then sacrifice themselves. Another great thing about Rogue One is that it deals with characters which do not have much "canon" baggage and thus can tell a story which is not constrained nearly as much by said "canon". I felt the same feeling at the ending of Rogue One that I did at the ending of Gladiator or Blood Diamond... and that was the first time I had that type of reaction to a Star Wars movie.

They attempted to "sacrifice" characters we cared about in the way of Han Solo being killed off, Luke being killed off, and the death of the admiral who rammed her ship into snokes ship... but it didn't have the same effect for a variety of reasons.

In the case of Han Solo, the fact that they turned his character from a badass smuggler rogue of the galaxy into a deadbeat dad with a failed marriage and a dysfunctional child really decreased how much I cared or wanted to continue seeing him in the franchise... so that impact was lessened.

In the case of Luke, they diminished and changed his character in a major way similar to Han Solo before attempting to "sacrifice" him which actually diminished how much I cared as he wasn't the Luke I knew... if they had actually sacrificed him fighting Kylo to save the people in the cave, that might have worked well... instead they turned him into a force ghost which basically nullifies his "death" and he wasn't even heroic as he was in no real danger...

In the case of the female admiral chick... I just don't care. She was a poor leader and I didn't care about her contrived premise for sacrificing herself (how about if you aren't inept and you won't put yourself in that position to begin with?).

In Rogue One... I cared about the characters, their motivations seemed genuine, and their sacrifice thus hit harder than any of the ones above I just mentioned, despite their characters actually being less impactful overall in the Star Wars saga.

...and it does a very good job portraying the heroic tragedy genre by developing characters we actually care about who then sacrifice themselves. ... I felt the same feeling at the ending of Rogue One that I did at the ending of Gladiator or Blood Diamond... and that was the first time I had that type of reaction to a Star Wars movie.

I really don’t get why so many people here picked Rogue One in the top 3

I thought it was a better done movie than any of the prequals or sequals, and it does a very good job portraying the heroic tragedy genre by developing characters we actually care about who then sacrifice themselves. Another great thing about Rogue One is that it deals with characters which do not have much "canon" baggage and thus can tell a story which is not constrained nearly as much by said "canon". I felt the same feeling at the ending of Rogue One that I did at the ending of Gladiator or Blood Diamond... and that was the first time I had that type of reaction to a Star Wars movie.

They attempted to "sacrifice" characters we cared about in the way of Han Solo being killed off, Luke being killed off, and the death of the admiral who rammed her ship into snokes ship... but it didn't have the same effect for a variety of reasons.

In the case of Han Solo, the fact that they turned his character from a badass smuggler rogue of the galaxy into a deadbeat dad with a failed marriage and a dysfunctional child really decreased how much I cared or wanted to continue seeing him in the franchise... so that impact was lessened.

In the case of Luke, they diminished and changed his character in a major way similar to Han Solo before attempting to "sacrifice" him which actually diminished how much I cared as he wasn't the Luke I knew... if they had actually sacrificed him fighting Kylo to save the people in the cave, that might have worked well... instead they turned him into a force ghost which basically nullifies his "death" and he wasn't even heroic as he was in no real danger...

In the case of the female admiral chick... I just don't care. She was a poor leader and I didn't care about her contrived premise for sacrificing herself (how about if you aren't inept and you won't put yourself in that position to begin with?).

In Rogue One... I cared about the characters, their motivations seemed genuine, and their sacrifice thus hit harder than any of the ones above I just mentioned, despite their characters actually being less impactful overall in the Star Wars saga.

Totally agree. I almost totally boycotted rogue one before it came out and was totally blown away by it.

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Rogue One
3. Phantom Menace (it had so many good things that I was waiting for long time that I looked past the bad ones; young Obi Wan meets Anakin, Qui Gon, Darth Maul, the Sith "revealing themselves", right off the bat lightsaber action sequences, honestly the underwater Gungan city was stunning, and I truly LOVED Pod racing!)

Also since since im here and we are talking about good story telling, anyone who really enjoys stories and video games check out Metro 2033, Ive never gone crazy for stories in games but man I personally was blown away by the story. I know the game is based on the book but im not a reader so playing the game is a great way to experience it

I really don’t get why so many people here picked Rogue One in the top 3

I thought it was a better done movie than any of the prequals or sequals, and it does a very good job portraying the heroic tragedy genre by developing characters we actually care about who then sacrifice themselves. Another great thing about Rogue One is that it deals with characters which do not have much "canon" baggage and thus can tell a story which is not constrained nearly as much by said "canon". I felt the same feeling at the ending of Rogue One that I did at the ending of Gladiator or Blood Diamond... and that was the first time I had that type of reaction to a Star Wars movie.

They attempted to "sacrifice" characters we cared about in the way of Han Solo being killed off, Luke being killed off, and the death of the admiral who rammed her ship into snokes ship... but it didn't have the same effect for a variety of reasons.

In the case of Han Solo, the fact that they turned his character from a badass smuggler rogue of the galaxy into a deadbeat dad with a failed marriage and a dysfunctional child really decreased how much I cared or wanted to continue seeing him in the franchise... so that impact was lessened.

In the case of Luke, they diminished and changed his character in a major way similar to Han Solo before attempting to "sacrifice" him which actually diminished how much I cared as he wasn't the Luke I knew... if they had actually sacrificed him fighting Kylo to save the people in the cave, that might have worked well... instead they turned him into a force ghost which basically nullifies his "death" and he wasn't even heroic as he was in no real danger...

In the case of the female admiral chick... I just don't care. She was a poor leader and I didn't care about her contrived premise for sacrificing herself (how about if you aren't inept and you won't put yourself in that position to begin with?).

In Rogue One... I cared about the characters, their motivations seemed genuine, and their sacrifice thus hit harder than any of the ones above I just mentioned, despite their characters actually being less impactful overall in the Star Wars saga.

My perspective is the exact opposite of yours. I mean, it wasn't bad. I liked it for what it was. I was into the story because it impacted directly into A New Hope.
My problem with the movie is that the characters are not likeable at all. And when I say characters I refer to the main ones who are in charge of driving the movie which are Cassian and Jyn. They provided no emotion to me and I didn't care when they finally died. Krennic was quite good though, his motivations and ambitions were clear and when you see him get killed by his own creation you can even feel for him. I cared more when Galen died than when Jyn did. Galen didn't want to build the Death Star but had to because his family was at stake. But his conscience made him add vulnerabilties to the Station. THAT itself improves A New Hope for all those that felt that an exaust port to destroy the Death Star in one shot was too convenient. I extremely loved the last 5 minutes of the movie even though a lot of it was fan service, it was really beautiful and tied very neatly with A New Hope. So yes, I found enjoyment in this movie.
Being that said, considering Rogue One to be better than any movie of the original trilogy is giving this movie WAAAAAAAY more credit than it deserves.

RO was solid and far better than any sequel imo.
Solo was decent also but I like the real Starwars movies, not spinoffs about sidekicks. I don’t really care what the ball boys do at a Federer Nadal match.